This, That, & The Other

• THIS: 

We saw the Olate Dogs at Diadeloso this week. I wish I had captured more pictures of 

the enormous grins on my kids faces throughout the show instead of the dogs themselves.

They were looooving it. In these clips you can hear Alex laughing, and I caught a little 

bit of his reaction at the end. 

They thought it was the best thing they'd ever seen in their lives.

• THAT: I am totally grossed out by Pace Picante sauce these days. We have always been faithful purchasers of the giant container from Sam's, but at some point earlier this year, I started eating it with some chips, stopped, and was just like, "This is NOT GOOD." I haven't been able to stomach it since. I crave a smoother salsa, even better if it's warm and homemade. The On the Border brand is working for me right now as a store-bought version--bonus, they even sell a large bottle at Sam's! Do you have a favorite brand?

• THE OTHER: I am kind of obsessed with StoryCorps. I love the whole idea of it, and now they have a really great app to help you record your own stories and interviews. Every Friday morning I sit in my car for a few minutes longer before heading in to work, just to listen to the StoryCorps clips they play on NPR's Morning Edition. Then, when I finally do head inside, it's usually with red, puffy eyes after weeping over some heartwarming tale. Since this weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings, today they played a couple of survivor stories of children from the daycare in the Murrah building. Grab a tissue and listen!

I'm Here!

I didn't forget! It was just one of those days. The universe is conspiring against my blogging, I tell you. Today it was two blown out tires on the way home from school (don't ask) that resulted in my spending the afternoon cruising the aisles at Sam's Club while waiting for them to be replaced. Tiny silver lining: while there, I discovered the brand new book, Sweet Valley High Confidential: Ten Years Later. By the original author of the series. Awww yeah, you know I'm going to be reading that this summer! Those books account for pretty much all of my extracurricular reading in junior high. In the new one, apparently the twins are estranged and the good twin, Elizabeth, is out for revenge against bad twin Jessica. Sweet!

Since it's so late, I'm going to hold off on starting the updates until tomorrow and just share a few other good things...

A new blog to read: Kacy at Every Day I Write the Book. A laugh out loud Mormon Mommy Blogger.Try this one, and here, and here, just to start. My favorites though, are when she posts on more serious topics without taking herself too seriously. Love this one.

ishare printables is my new one-stop, go-to spot for finding all of the fun, free crafty printables there are out there.

Really loving Amazon's universal wishlist button.

Have you read my friend, Sara's blog lately, about Adah? She is well past 100 days post-transplant now, cancer-free, with 100% donor cells showing on repeated tests. Amazing grace! Praying for the miracle to be complete.

Gotta get going. Thanks for tuning in, peeps. And, just so you know, those of you who gave me hard time about not blogging...I know you were doing just that, and I needed the kick in the pants, so thanks!

Parental Ego

I was just reading cjane, and in honor of April being Autism Awareness Month, her neighbor and friend, Catherine Parry, wrote a guest post about parenting her son, Will. It is a great post, and this particular line struck me as a terrific nugget of parental wisdom, special needs children or not:

"The longer we have been parents, the more we have learned to distrust our motives for responding sharply if Will melted down in public, or for demanding obedience just because we said so. Will’s most challenging task may be training us to act in his best interest, without worrying about how our decisions affect our parental image."

How often do we let our "parental egos" get in the way of our being the parents our children need us to be? Both in the big and small things?

I'm going to be chewing on that one the rest of the day. Would love to hear your thoughts...

Easter Links

A little share today of some of my favorite Easter things that have been popping up on the Internets this week...

 

Cute easter paper bags made with these free downloads from Green Lily Designs.

 

If you know me well, you know I love peeps. So I just think this is the cutest idea ever. "Happy Easter to one of my favorite peeps." Love it! Download the free bag topper from eighteen25 here.

 

Also peep-related, how cute is this felt garland by Dana at MADE? Click here for the full tutorial at one of my favorite blogs, V & Co. I will definitely be making one or two!

Do you have any fun links or Easter crafts to share?

Reason #571 Why I Love Teh Internets

So many great ideas out there I can copy!

Love this one from Kimba at A Soft Place to Land:

 

From after Christmas into January, they keep all of their received Christmas cards in a basket on their kitchen table. Every night at dinner, they draw a card from the basket and include that person/family specifically in their prayer before eating. What a great way to show gratitude for all of the special friends and family in your life, and I can see it sparking some great dinner conversations about those friends and family members, sharing memories, etc. We are so going to start this one tonight!

Oh, and if you're looking to get organized in 2010 and need some ideas or motivation, my sister-in-law Karisa is hosting a two-week "Project Organization" challenge over on her blog: Four in Ohio.

What great ideas have you seen in the blogosphere lately?

A little inspiration

This little gem from one of my favorite etsy sellers, Allison Strine, showed up in my email inbox last weekend. It's a little bit naughty, but it cracks me up and totally inspires me at the same time:

Love it!

And for anyone who might be looking for some ideas or a little extra motivation for the summer, you might try joining the "Summer of Service" challenge at momitforward.com.

Every Sunday, they'll be posting a challenge for the week on their blog and different ideas for carrying it out. For example, this week's challenge was "Focus on the Family" and included suggestions like sending a care package to a far-away family member or holding a family talent show; the week before it was "Make some Music" by doing something like creating a special cd for Dad for Father's Day. Some good summer boredom buster ideas.

Finally, I know I've posted this link a couple of times before, but seriously, if you've never taken the time to click on over before, do it today. 

Just go to the first page of Stephanie Nielson's blog and read a few of her latest posts..."Love," "Becoming Stephanie," "Oh What a Night," and my favorite, "Elephants." I can honestly say that reading her posts, both the old ones before the crash, and the current recovery ones, has changed me in some way. And you just can't say that about much else out there on the Internets. It's an incredible, ongoing story of faith, love, motherhood, and strength.

A LOT of inspiration.

Fun Finds

Just jumping on quickly to share a few fun things on the Internets...

Loving this blog for recipes and other ideas: Sophistimom

Loving this site, CakeWrecks, for a laugh a day. She posts pictures of "professional cakes gone horribly, hilariously, wrong."

Loving this idea for a creative scrapbook at It's All in the Details. Another someday project.

This site, Jolly Jenn, has printable visual aids for teaching over 120 Primary songs.

Love, love, love this simple Halloween decorating idea by DesignMom.

And like Jenny, I've become absolutely enamored with this blog, C Jane, her writing, and her telling of the heartbreaking, inspiring Nielson family story.

Things We Love

Microfiber Cleaning Cloths

                          

I'm telling you...if you haven't yet been introduced or converted to the power of these babies, get thee to a Target today. They are my little miracle workers, and I find myself using them for everything. I love that they are so strong that I don't have to add harsh cleaners or chemicals in order to get maximum cleaning power. But buyers beware: Get them from the automotive section and not the household/cleaning section of the store. Same cloths, big price difference (though they won't come in the pretty colors pictured above in the auto section).

Window Shopping on the Web

Katy Shops is my favorite go-to blog for new, fun things. Design Mom is my favorite go-to blog for pretty things. If you want to drool over some couture children's clothing, check out Enchanted Enfant. And remember the "Keep Calm" print I posted in my last edition of "Things We Love"? Here's an entire shop's worth of prints just like it: love so many of the fun posters on this website.

Other Miracles of The Internets

You can listen to articles from the Ensign on the web. You can track your calories at the Daily Plate. You can sign up for Neighbor Jane Payne's newsletter and read her blog. (I don't know her, but I want to be this woman when I grow up. She's incredible.) And I love checking in on the Library of Congress flickr stream. You can catch some really cool photographs, like this one of the first all-woman jury in 1911; they heard a case about a speeding motorcylist.

    

Best of Becky Higgins Sketches for Scrapbooking

                          

Even though I'm not really scrapping much these days (And yes, I do realize that the Page-A-Day in May experiment was not so successful, thankyouverymuch!), Emma gave me a copy of this book when she was in town, and it really, really makes me want to scrapbook. It's the whole time/mess thing that's the issue. Is there a book I can get for that?

HEB's Fresh Tortillas

They've become a staple in our house. The kids would rather have a plain tortilla with their breakfast than a piece of toast. White flour is of the devil.

Newman's Own Light Lime Vinaigrette

                                        

This is the perfect salad dressing to accompany Mexican food. Perfect on a taco salad or if you want to serve a regular green salad with your enchiladas. I loooove it.

Reading with Aubrey

Girl is addicted to books. I love that she is and have every intention of fostering the obsession. This week's favorites include Emily's Dance Class and How Are You Peeling?

CSI: Miami, Project Runway, Tom & Jerry, and Max & Ruby

All of our favorite tv shows, respectively. Actually, I'm totally kidding about CSI: Miami for Brendon, but it seems like he cannot NOT watch it when it's on, even though he knows he's only going to end up mocking it mercilessly. I think Leanne might be my underdog favorite on Project Runway this season.

Superhero Dads

                  

While out shopping for Brendon's birthday presents, Gracie saw this t-shirt, knew it was "perfect" for him and couldn't be dissuaded. It really kind of cracks me up the way she idolizes (and sometimes manipulates) him...she wants basketball to be "her" sport so she can accompany him when he goes to play. When he is gone out of town or after bedtime, I get to hear an endless stream of, "But I just miss Daddy" as an excuse why she can't help clean up, go to sleep, etc. And the "Dad" shirt she was wearing in the birthday video is one of her favorite items of clothing. Yep, Daddy is definitely at the top of her "Things We Love" list.

I dare you

not to laugh, or at least smile, while reading this post.

First, a video clip. I remember seeing this on AFV ages ago, and have seen it here and there since then, but Kristie emailed it to me last week for YouTube Tuesday, and dang it all if it didn't have me giggling all over again...

   

If that didn't put a smile on your face, perhaps you prefer babies of the non-human variety, in which case you might want to head over to The Daily Puppy or Cute Overload, where you can get your fill of smile-producing photos like these:

Resistance is futile. Smile today!

(P.S. I finally figured out how to get my links to open up in new windows so you don't ever have to be clicking back and forth from links I may post.)

Some questions answered

Why the new blog?

I had been thinking about switching over for quite some time just because I wanted some features that blogdrive did not offer, like categorizing and searching posts and backing up and exporting content. Then there was the whole issue of blogdrive's sometimes unreliability.

So, after not being able to access my old blog for about a week in early December because of another glitch, followed by a minor freakout panic because I thought perhaps it was gone forever, I decided to finally make the switch. I'm not completely certain that Typepad will be my permanent home; there are some things that drive me crazy about this site, too. I'm still working to see if I can get Wordpress to do everything I want it to, or if I can figure out the things that are irritating me here at Typepad. We'll see...

Where can I find the "Sorry" t-shirt Brendon got for Christmas?

I found it at this CafePress store: Swelter. The shirt itself is probably not the greatest, but what it lacks in quality, it makes up for in hilarity. You could also go for their more straight-forward version: the "I'm Always Right" tee.

What is the most awesome thing you have seen online recently?

Okay, so this wasn't really a question anyone has asked, but when I was looking for the link to the t-shirt just now, I came across this bookmark, which I've been meaning to share:

An edge brownie pan. Seriously awesome. Brendon and I always compete over the edge and corner pieces of brownies. They are the best! This is genius in my book.